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Gold/Mining/Energy : Gold Price Monitor -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: goldsnow who wrote (5212)	1/4/1998 4:30:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Respond to of 116759

Dubai looks to 1998 gold business with optimism 12:04 p.m. Jan 04, 1998 Eastern DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (Reuters) - The Gulf Arab emirate of Dubai is hoping to be one of the gold industry's winners in 1998 if world bullion prices stay locked in the bargain basement, traders and analysts in Dubai said Sunday. The small, tax-free emirate of 600,000 people emerged from 1997 as the world's largest gold redistribution center, importing more than 600 metric tons of the yellow metal for re-export mainly to the Indian subcontinent and surrounding Gulf states. ''Dubai is now the largest gold redistribution center in the world. Imports in 1997 will be close to double the trading volume of 1996,'' said Rolf Schneebeli, the head of the World Gold Council's (WGC) Middle East and India section. Imports of gold into Dubai -- mainly from Switzerland, Britain and South Africa -- are expected by the WGC to grow again in 1998 though the exact increase will depend mainly on how future price direction and India's decision to liberalise import rules on gold work through, traders said. Dubai imported a record 66.9 tons in November, the latest statistics released by Dubai customs department showed. Dubai's 1997 imports shot up to the equivalent of more than the entire annual output from South African mines as a result of a fall in bullion prices that slumped last month to 18-year lows and surging demand from India, the world's largest gold market. Indians last year went on a shopping spree to satisfy wedding, festival and investment needs and pushed demand to over 700 tons from 508 tons in 1996, WGC estimates show. Copyright 1997 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.